Dickson, Sylva bicker over criminality, insecurity in Bayelsa

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and his predecessor in office, Chief Timipre Sylva, have been bickering over whose behind the perpetration of criminality and insecurity in the oil-rich state.

While Dickson has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of allowing Sylva and Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, to destabilise the state, Sylva has told Dickson to leave him out of his inadequacies.

Dickson in a statement by his Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Dan Alabrah, expressed shock that the President had failed to take any action against the All Progressives Congress’ leaders and their cohorts who he described as causing mayhem in the state despite complaining to him and security agencies.

The governor said, “The President has allowed people such as Sylva and Lokpobiri to unleash violence on their people while the Inspector General of Police is sitting in Abuja to direct investigation of a petition against the Brass council chairman.

“At the moment, they are attacking innocent people in Brass, who are members of the Peoples Democratic Party, with people bloodied and houses burnt, all in a bid to destabilise the state.”

The governor accused the APC leaders in the state, including Sylva and Lokpobiri, of using the security agencies to shield criminals and intimidate and harass innocent citizens.

He also pointedly accused the legislator representing the Brass Constituency 1 in the state House of Assembly, Israel Sunny-Goli, of being responsible for the mayhem in Brass and that he was being shielded by Sylva, Lokpobiri and security agencies.

He called for his arrest and prosecution for various crimes, including murder, thuggery and cultism in his constituency and the whole of Brass Local Government Area.

But Sylva in a statement by his media aide, Julius Bokoru, dismissed Dickson’s accusation, describing the governor as “a classless opportunist who will never measure up intellectually, socially and morally to him.”

The former governor, who is also the leader of the APC in Bayelsa said, “If Dickson saw it fit to spend even a third of the energy he spends obsessing over Sylva on the task of governance before him, the state would have been better for it.

“While the APC and its leaders in the state are chasing criminals out of its fold, Dickson and his lowly government welcome and celebrate them as he is building an army of criminally-minded elements to unleash terror on members of the APC in the state. This can be confirmed in his statement when he threatened to take the law into his hands by mobilising his people to arrest Israel Sunny-Goli. The question is who are his people that he wants to mobilise?”

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